Highlights
- Director warns lack of funding limits commissioning opportunities.
- Four new playwrights present work in Bradford performances.
- Programme supports development of underrepresented voices.
Funding barriers persist
Hussain, formerly associate director at Leeds Playhouse, said there is “a real deficit in south Asian stories”, particularly from women playwrights.
She said structured programmes are vital because they provide both creative guidance and industry support.
She stressed the key challenge is not “a lack of will” but a shortage of funding that prevents talented writers from developing work for production.
Hussain warned that without sustained support, important voices risk disappearing and future generations could lose those stories.
The director has previously worked with Hull Truck Theatre, Opera North, Kiln Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Soho Theatre.
New voices emerging
The Bradford scheme features writers Shazia Bibi, Samara Daniels, Nabeela Ahmed and Lois Vohra. Each has written a 20-minute play to be performed on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.
Bibi, 30, who was born in Kashmir in Pakistan and raised in Bradford, said she rarely saw herself represented in theatre growing up. Her play The Almost explores a couple’s relationship through a time-shift concept examining how different decisions can change lives.
Actor Aizah Khan from Coventry said working with female Asian writers is exciting and reflects growing opportunities, though representation remains limited.
The Bradford performances aim to provide a platform for emerging talent while highlighting the continuing need for financial support to sustain diverse storytelling in British theatre.
Agatha Christie boarding the EET Salon at lunchtime on the train from Bulawayo to the Cape. In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the world. Her husband Archie had been invited to join a trade mission to promote the British Empire Exhibition and Agatha was determined to go with him The Christie Archive Trust
Agatha Christie under a tree on Honolulu beach after surfing, 1922. Agatha and her husband Archie were permitted to take a short holiday away from the 1922 trade mission and chose Honolulu where they learnt how to surf on longboards. Here Agatha purchased a surf suit in the local style, better suited to the demands of surfing than her swim attire for bathing in Torquay. The Christie Archive Trust
Agatha Christie relaxing during a sightseeing tour, Tajoura, Libya, 1955. Agatha and her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan had invited Agatha's daughter Rosalind and grandson Mathew to join them on a tour of the ancient sites of Leptis Magna and Sabratah during December 1955. The Christie Archive Trust
Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, 201720th Century Studios
Still from Murder on the Orient Express, 201720th Century Studios
Still from And Then There Were None, 2015, BBC Agatha Christie Limited
Still from And Then There Were None, 2015, BBCAgatha Christie Limited
Still from And Then There Were None, 2015, BBCAgatha Christie Limited
Agatha Christie’s Remington typewriter from 1937 The Christie Archive Trust
Agatha Christie’s Remington typewriter from 1937The Christie Archive Trust
Agatha Christie’s study notes for her pharmaceutical exam taken in 1917The Christie Archive Trust
Letter from Agatha Christie to her second husband Max Mallowan, in December 1930. Agatha writes to Max describing her return home from their honeymoon, on the Orient Express. Documenting how the train had been halted by floods and her fellow travellers' reactions, this event would inspire her to write Murder on the Orient Express a few years later.The Christie Archive Trust
Cover of typescript ofHouse of Beauty, Agatha Christie’s first short story written when she was just a teenager.The Christie Archive Trust
Box for Tabloid Veronal tablets,1910-1940 Science Museum Group
Chemical storage bottle and glass stopper, labelled ‘POISON phosphorus P’,1907-1912Science Museum Group
Empty poison bottle for aconite, iodine and chloretone solution,1925-1960Science Museum Group
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